In the move or revolution towards reducing the man power required in the field of agriculture. A variety of machines and tools have been discovered and introduced after the agricultural revolution. One such machinery is known as a seed drill. The most important part of any kind of cultivation is the proper sowing of the seeds. When the sowing of seeds was carried out by the humans. There seemed to have a lot of losses to the farmer due to the imprecise planting, non-uniform distribution of seeds resulting in a large amount of wastage. The relevance of the seeddrill comes into light at this context.

The modern form of seed drill was invented by Jethro Tull in the early eighteenth century even though their ancestors are found among Sumerians and Chinese. The seeddrill ensured that the seeds are sowed with appropriate distances between them and at correct depths. This enhanced the proper germination which cements the fact that a maximum yield is produced by the end of the season.

Know how a seed drill works?

Traditionally, a seed drill consists of a hopper of seeds arranged above a series of tubes which can be arranged at desired distances from each other to allow proper growth of the resulting plants. Seed is supplied using fluted paddles that rotate using a geared drive present in the drill’s land wheels—seed rate is altered by changing gear ratios. Most modern drills use air to supply seed in plastic tubes from the seed hopper to the coulters—it is an arrangement which allows seed drills to be a lot wider than the seed hopper—as much as 12 m wide in some cases.

The seed is metered mechanically into an air-stream created by a hydraulically powered on-board fan and supplied initially to a distribution head which again divides the seed into the pipes taking the seed to the individual coulters. At the time of sowing, it has to be carefully seen that there is neither an under-distribution nor an over-distribution of seeds. Over-distribution increases the amount of plants or the crop that grows. But at the same time it creates an unavailability of minerals and resources to a certain group of plants.

So the proper amount of seeds that has to be grown to yield the maximum profitable harvest is ensured by a seed drill. The seeddrill also sees to it that a minimum amount of weeds are grown among the crops. So as a whole, seed drill ensures not just proper sowing of seeds but also weed control and a proper yield. So this is how the seed drill works.